New legislation

Revision of preliminary investigation phase

Two acts dealing with the position of examining judges in criminal proceedings and revising rules concerning case files came into force on 1 January 2013 - see also the RCE Newsletter of October 2012.

Prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism

Amendments to the Dutch Act on money laundering and prevention of terrorist financing and to its counterpart for the BES countries also took effect on 1 January 2013. 

The legislative changes implement recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force ("FATF") with regard to:

  • client due diligence
  • notification of unusual transactions
  • criminal and civil indemnification of institutions that made notifications
  • exchange of information between supervisors

See also the RCE Newsletter of July 2012

The European Commission adopted a proposal on 5 February 2013 to implement the FATF recommendations in two directives concerning money laundering and fund transfers. These are:

  • a directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing
  • a regulation on information accompanying transfers of funds to secure "due traceability" of these transfers

The two proposals allow reinforcement of the sanctioning powers of the competent authorities and strengthen cooperation between the relevant agencies in the different member states.

The proposals are currently pending with the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers.

Implementation of European evidence warrant

A bill implementing the Council Framework Decision on the European evidence warrant ("EEW") was published on 10 January 2013. It is not yet known when the bill will enter into force. The Framework Decision is aimed at fast and efficient cooperation between Member States in collecting and transferring (existing) evidence in criminal cases. Where necessary, evidence may be obtained and transferred by a search, an order to hand over documents, or a demand for information. This could also concern information already held by criminal investigation agencies. The EEW is issued by the judicial authorities of the requesting member state and carried out by the authorities of the member state on whose territory the objects, documents or data are located. The Framework Decision does not cover collection of future information.

Fines and periodic penalty payments in case of violation of EU regulations

A decree enabling the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets ("AFM") and the Dutch Central Bank ("DNB") to impose a fine or periodic penalty payment on parties violating a European regulation was published on 8 November 2012. An annex to the decree lists the regulations and provisions for which a fine or penalty payment may be imposed. The majority of the decree's provisions took effect on 1 January 2013.

Changes to accountancy law

The First Chamber of the Dutch Parliament adopted a bill on the accountancy profession on 11 December 2012. Most provisions of the bill entered into effect on 1 January 2013. The bill merges the Netherlands Organisation of Accounting Consultants (NOvAA) and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Registered Accountants (NIVRA) into one organisation, the Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants (NBA). The bill as adopted will bring significant changes to the accountancy profession. These include:

  • Compulsory rotation of accountancy firms.
    Accountancy firms may provide statutory audit services to public interest organisations for no more than eight consecutive years. After this, they will have to observe a two-year cooling off period before resuming statutory audit services. These new compulsory rotation rules will not come into force until 1 January 2016.
  • A requirement for audit firms to separate audit and advisory services.
    This means that accountancy firms may no longer provide both audit and advisory services to public interest organisations.
  • A requirement for public interest organisations to give prior notification to the AFM of their intention to appoint an accountancy firm to perform audits.

Penalisation of terrorism financing

A bill on the penalisation of terrorism financing was submitted to the Second Chamber of Parliament on 22 November 2012. In submitting this bill, the Netherlands is meeting FATF and other international obligations in the fight against the financing of terrorism. In a report issued in early 2011, the FATF expressed criticism of the way in which terrorism financing was penalised in the Netherlands, which was different from the approach adopted by most other FATF member states. To address this criticism, the new bill contains changes to the Dutch Criminal Code, and its equivalent in the BES countries, making financing of terrorism a separate criminal offence.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.